Top officials of SRP, HRP, NRP, and Funcinpec signed a letter calling on "Cambodian public opinion and the international community not to recognize the results of the July 27, 2008, election

Four Main Parties Reject 'Sham' Election
By Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
28 July 2008

Representatives from four non-ruling parties gathered at opposition
headquarters Monday to reject Sunday's national election as "a sham,"
after the ruling Cambodian People's Party appeared to have won enough
seats to form a single-party government.

Top officials of the Sam Rainsy, Human Rights, Norodom Ranariddh and
Funcinpec parties signed a letter calling on "Cambodian public opinion
and the international community not to recognize the results of the
July 27, 2008, elections, which were manipulated and rigged by the
ruling Cambodian People's Party."

There have not been five separate parties elected to the National
Assembly since the 1993 Untac elections, and the joining together of
four against one is unprecedented.

In 1998, the Sam Rainsy and Funcinpec parties joined together to
protest election results in the wake of the 1997 coup.

That three-month crisis of government led to mass demonstrations in
the capital and a brutal crackdown by government forces, where scores
of demonstrators were disappeared and presumed killed.

In 2003, the government was deadlocked for 11 months, due to an
alliance between Funcinpec and SRP that prevented a coalition
government.

"We have already strengthened together to deny the results of the
election, and also for the voters," opposition leader Sam Rainsy told
a large crowd gathered at his headquarters Monday afternoon. "We need
to revote across Cambodia."

"We appeal to the EU and the international community to deny the
results, because there are so many irregularities during the
election," Human Rights Party Presdient Kem Sokha told the same
cheering crowd.


The parties "hope in the future will have an alliance together" and
have the same goals, he said.

The main point for the alliance would be to send a message to the
people "who love justice" to come to work together.

The four parties condemned "illegal and fraudulent practices" in
Sunday's polls, including "deletion of countless legitimate voters'
names and [an] artificial increase in the CPP voters to cast their
ballots for the CPP."

The parties also condemned "the tricks and maneuvers of the National
Election Committee, which is only a tool for the CPP to organize a
sham election and present a façade of democracy."

"I'm not surprised about this information," NEC Chairman Im Sousdey
told reporters Monday. "We always see after the election Cambodian
political parties doing the same thing."

Government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said Monday unofficial results
now showed the CPP with 90 seats, followed by the Sam Rainsy Party
with 26, Human Rights Party with three, Norodom Ranariddh with two,
and Funcinpec with two.

Khieu Thai Sarakmony, a 57-year-old from Phnom Penh who joined the
crowd at SRP headquarters Monday, said he supported the cooperation of
the four parties for the people.

"But it should have been earlier," he said, "before the election."

.

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